First and only edition; inscribed copy. The author worked in the service of the Nawab (sovereign) of Tonk, in Hindustan. A Muslim, the Nawab in January 1870 received permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Ahmed Hassan accompanied him, and his account includes details of the crossing from Bombay to Jeddah, of the visits to Mecca and Medina, and of the continuation of his journey to England. The account is uncommon. - Occasional minute foxing to interior, otherwise a very fine copy in well-preserved original binding. Inscribed by the author on t. p.: "With the author's compliments".

Second edition of this dissertation about the grave of the Prophet Muhammad, first published in 1677, including a description of the location of Mecca (where the grave was believed to be situated) and an account of the Prophet's body being preserved in a box of iron, levitated in mid-air by magnetic forces. - The Danzig-born theologian Samuel Andreae (1640-99) had taught Greek, Philosophy, Rhetorics, and History before settling at the Hessian university of Marburg, where he served as professor of Theology and head of the university library. Several of his academic works offer a historical slant on Biblical topics. The physician Johann Philipp Jordis (1658-1721/25) studied in Utrecht and practised in Frankfurt from 1685 onwards. - Browned throughout due to paper. No copy in America, according to OCLC.

One of the very rare Weißenburg illustrated broadsheets showing oriental motifs. These were published under the fictitious address of Hassan Uwais (Auvès) in Cairo. The actual publisher, Camille Burckardt, was head of the Weißenburg company from 1880 until 1888. - Slight crease with minor edge damage; occasional browning. All of these prints are very rare; a different print commanded £21,250 at Sotheby's in 2012.

One of the very rare Weißenburg illustrated broadsheets showing oriental motifs. These were published under the fictitious address of Hassan Uwais (Auvès) in Cairo. The actual publisher, Camille Burckardt, was head of the Weißenburg company from 1880 until 1888. - Slight crease, minor edge damage and browning. All of these prints are very rare; a different print commanded £21,250 at Sotheby's in 2012.

An extremely rare illustrated broadsheet showing the procession of the Egyptian Mahmal en route from Cairo to Mecca, with a colourful reception of a group of pilgrims in an Egyptian desert village. The Arabic caption states that the print was made from a drawing made on the spot by Sheikh Yunus, citing Hassan Uwais in Abidin Road, Cairo, as the publisher. The true publisher, Camille Burckardt in Weißenburg, is not named: it was company policy to obscure the European provenance of these broadsheets so as to to improve their sale potential in the Middle East. All of these prints are very rare; another copy of this print commanded £21,250 at Sotheby's in 2012.

First edition (the second of the same year was in two volumes, octavo). Burckhardt travelled disguised as an Arab, making his notes clandestinely. This work deals primarily with his travels to Mecca and Djidda, Medina and Yembo. The Lausanne-born Burckhardt (1784-1817) was a remarkable character, the first Westerner to visit the Holy Cities. In the guise of a pilgrim "he proceeded to perform the rites of pilgrimage at Mekka, go round the Kaaba, sacrifice, &c., and in every respect acquitted himself as a good Muslim. No Christian or European had ever accomplished this feat before; and the penalty of discovery would probably have been death. [...] Burckhardt possessed the highest qualifications of a traveller. Daring and yet prudent, a close and accurate observer, with an intimate knowledge of the people among whom he travelled, their manners and their language, he was able to accomplish feats of exploration which to others would have been impossible" (Stanley Lane-Poole, in: DNB VII, 293f.). - Old stamp of the "Belcher Library" (Gaysville, Vermont) on first blank, some toning and brownstaining. Rare.

First edition of Burton's classic account of his journey across the Arabian peninsula. In the fall of 1852, Burton first proposed to the Royal Geographical Society an expedition to central Arabia with the intent on visiting the holy cities. His request was denied by the RGS and the East India Company as being too dangerous for a westerner, though he was funded to study Arabic in Egypt. Upon arrival there, in April 1853, disguised as a Pashtun and travelling under the pseudonym Mirza Abdullah, Burton made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. "The actual pilgrimage began with a journey on camel-back from Cairo to Suez. Then followed twelve days in a pilgrim ship on the Red Sea from Suez to Yambu, the port of El-Medinah. So far the only risk was from detection by his companions. Now came the dangers of the inland road, infested by Bedawin robbers. The journey from Yambu to El-Medinah, thence to Meccah, and finally to the sea again at Jeddah, occupied altogether from 17 July to 23 Sept., including some days spent in rest, and many more in devotional exercises. From Jeddah, Burton returned to Egypt in a British steamer, intending to start afresh for the interior of Arabia via Muwaylah. But this second project was frustrated by ill-health, which kept him in Egypt until his period of furlough was exhausted. The manuscript ... was sent home from India, and seen through the press by a friend in England. It is deservedly the most popular of Burton's books ... as a story of bold adventure, and as lifting a veil from the unknown, its interest will never fade" (DNB). Indeed, the work would be described by T.E. Lawrence as "a most remarkable work of the highest value."

Extremely rare French study of Islamic culture, society, religion, and the Islamic countries, with chapters on the Pilgrimage to Mecca, the Holy City of Mecca, Rabigh, Bir Derouich, bedouins, polygamy, the Arabic language, astronomy, legislative reforms, and geography. Binding slightly rubbed at extremities, otherwise perfectly preserved. Removed from the "Bibliothèque de Garnison, Place de Montpellier" with their library and accession stamps (1927) and shelfmarks.

Statistical analysis of the health care and logistics of the Hajj of 1353 (AD 1935), covering the origins, travel routes, illnesses etc. of the roughly 80,000 pilgrims who visited the Holy Sites of Islam that year. The present volume is the eighth in the extremely rare series covering the early-20th-century Hajj, a period of transition toward steeply increasing numbers of pilgrims, now in excess of three million persons a year. - Upper cover slightly brownstained and dusty, spine slightly chipped, otherwise fine.

First Latin edition of the cosmographical and geographical work of Abraham Farissol, first published in Hebrew in 1586. Includes the Hebrew text together with the Latin translation by Thomas Hyde and copious notes, including sections in Arabic. Farissol incorporated accounts of Portuguese and Spanish exploration including the New World and Vasco da Gama's voyage to India. Also includes a contemporary work on Turkish liturgy and the pilgrimage to Mecca by Wojciech Bobowski, a renegade Pole employed as a teacher, interpreter and musician at the Ottoman court of Mahomet IV. Composed at the behest of Thomas Smith (1683-1719) during his tenure as chaplain to the English ambassador at Constantinople, the manuscript was bought back to England and translated into Latin by Hyde. - Binding rubbed and chafed, otherwise in good condition.

First edition of this splendid work, which was reprinted five times until 1742 (including an English edition). The first three volumes deal with historical and legendary monuments (among them the seven wonders of the ancient world as well as monuments of the "Arabs and the Turks"). The fourth volume is dedicated to buildings of Fischer von Erlach himself; the fifth volume shows vases and sarcophagi. - Binding slightly rubbed, some dampstaining near end, otherwise a fine, wide-margined and complete copy.

Only edition. "Galland's account of the rituals surrounding the pilgrimage to Mekkah includes enlightening description of many of the important shrines and sites within the city. Extensive footnotes describe the history and physical appearance of such features as the Kaaba, the Black Stone, and Mount Ararat, as well as explaining relevant Arabic terms and the importance of certain religious figures in the Islamic tradition" (Atabey cat.). "Galland, 'dragoman' or interpreter in the Levant, nephew of the celebrated orientalist Antoine Galland, translated many works into French, the present work being a collected edition of five Arabic and Turkish pieces" (Blackmer). Also contains a discussion of Ottoman science (the "Traduction d'une dissertation sur les sciences des Turcs, et sur l'ordre qu'ils gardent dans le cours de leurs études" by Zaini Efendi, pp. 85-98) and an extensive essay on the Greek island of Chios, ruled by Genoa from 1436 to 1566, when the Ottomans conquered the island (pp. 99-172), as well as an account of the Sultana Esma with Yakub Pasha, governor of Silistria. - Bound at the end is a later edition of Fénelon's well-known Mirror for Magistrates, written for the Dauphin, whose instructor Fénelon was (with contemporary note indexing this second work written on reverse of front flyleaf). - Slight browning throughout; lower half of title page remargined with a lithographed facsimile, extremeties repaired. Altogether an attractive copy; the Atabey copy (in a contemporary morocco binding for the provost of Paris) fetched £10,158 (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium).

First edition. - Principal work of the French Arabist Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes (1862-1957), a religio-historical study of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The author taught at the École nationale des langues orientales vivantes (now the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales) and also translated into French the travelogue of the Arabic explorer Ibn Jobair (1145-1217). - Margins slightly browned and brittle, still a very good, untrimmed copy.

Rare first edition. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863-1931), a convert to Islam, was one of the very few Western visitors to Mecca during his time. The classic account of his pilgrimage is of special interest due to the numerous illustrations drawn after photographs by the author and documenting buildings that have survived only greatly changed or which have disappeared altogether. - An untrimmed, well-preserved copy with very slight browning. Uncommon; auction records list the 2nd edition only (published in the same year), fetching as much as £950 (Sotheby's, Oct 14, 1998, lot 740); last sold for £750 (Sotheby's, Oct 15, 2003, lot 638).

Photographs of the Mahmal on its way to Mecca, pilgrims performing the hajj, the Holy Kaaba, a scene of dhabiha, etc. Among the pilgrims pictured is among them Rajah Sayyid Harrun Putra ibni Sayyid Hassan Jamalullail, ruler of Malaysia, with the Emir of Mecca, Machaal ibn Abdulaziz, brother of H.R.H. King Faisal.

First edition. - The three sections are devoted to "Turquie d'Europe" (including Greece), "Ilas ottomanes" (including Cyprus), and "Turquie d'Asie" (including Mecca and the Lebanon). The plates are based on studio portrait photographs by Pascal Sébah (1823-86), then at his peak. Sébah's Istanbul studio catered to the western European interest in the exotic "orient" and the growing numbers of tourists visiting the Muslim world who wished to take home images of the cities, ancient ruins in the surrounding area, portraits, and local people in traditional costumes. "Sebah rose to prominence because of his well-organized compositions, careful lighting, effective posing, attractive models, great attention to detail, and for the excellent print quality" (Gary Saretzky). - Occasional brownstaining, otherwise a good copy.

Showing several holy Islamic pilgrim sites in Saudi Arabia. The Baitullah Sharif in Mecca in the centre of the print is surrounded by eight illustrations, including Mount Arafat, Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, the mosque of Ta'if, and the cemeteries Jannatul Mualla and Al-Baqi'. The outer part of the oval shows by 24 illustrations of landscapes and architecture near Mecca (Jabal al-Nour, Muzdalifa, etc.). The corners are filled in with calligraphy. - Some chipping; edges professionally repaired.

First edition of this report of the Hajj performed by J. F. Keane (or, Haji Mohammed Amin) during the pilgrim season of 1877/78 - one of the several 19th-century pilgrimages to Mecca performed by Westerners of which we have written accounts. - Ms. ownership of Benson Murray, NYC, on front pastedown.

One of the first scholarly investigations of Islam in the 19th-c. Dutch East Indies. The attractive plates, chromolithographed by C. W. Mieling, feature pilgrims of various nations in traditional costume as well as topographical views of holy sites. The ethnologist Salomo Keyzer (1823-68), who lectured in Islamic Law at Delft, is also known for his Dutch Qur'an translation. - Bookplate of J. C. C. C. Campagne to front pastedown. Rear hinge shows minor split; occasional insignificant staining to margins of plates; altogether well-preserved.

Khan, [Gazanfar Ali]. With the Pilgrims to Mecca. The Great Pilgrimage... of A.H. 1319; A.D. 1902 by Hadji Khan, M.R.A.S. (Special Correspondent of the "Morning Post") and Wilfrid Sparroy (Author of "Persian Children of the Royal Family"") with an introduction by Professor A. Vambéry. London, John Lane, 1905. London, John Lane, 1905. 8vo. 314 pp. T. p. printed in red and black. With frontispiece and 24 photo illustrations on plates. Publisher's original giltstamped and illustrated green cloth. Top edge gilt.

EUR 3,500.00

First book edition of this account of the 1902 Hajj (the greater part of the work had first appeared in the London Morning Post). - Clean, well-preserved copy from the library of the American anthropologist and ethno-historian Henry Farmer Dobyns (1925-2009) with his autogr. signature to flyleaf. - Rare.

Fine, beautifully illustrated and extensively annotated catalogue of Martin's collection of Islamic textiles, including the fragment of a 19th century Kiswah: the elaborately embroidered cloth curtain that covers the Kaaba in Mecca, replaced every year. Translated from Swedish by C. O. Nordgren. A perfect copy. Rare.

Charming pop-up display designed by the Czech illustrator Vojtech Kubašta for the Iranian market. "In 1977, the Artia Foreign Trade Corporation exported nine Kubašta titles in the Farsi language to Iran. Kubašta's panoramic books [were] protected by a Czech patent. Using the Panascopic format but without text, and for the first time combining photographs and illustration, Kubašta designed a pop-up book celebrating Mecca, its pilgrims, and surrounding areas" (E. Rubin, The Life and Art of Vojtech Kubašta). - Corners slightly bumped; a few hinges reinforced. A fine specimen.

Account of a pilgrimage to Mecca ordered by the Ottoman court to invoke divine assistance against the Christian forces in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716-18. In fact, the practical value of this pilgrimage turned out to be limited: in August that same year, Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the Turks at Petrovaradin; in 1717 he recaptured Belgrade, defeating the Turkish forces with an overwhelmingly outnumbered army; in 1718 the Treaty of Passarowitz was signed, in which the Ottomans had to surrender large areas to Habsburg Empire, which now reached its greatest territorial expanse in history. - Translated into Portuguese and published by José Freire de Monterroyo Mascarenhas (1670-1760), the polyglot editor of numerous travel accounts and topical pamphlets. Rare; OCLC lists only two copies in America (Yale, Toronto).

¶ OCLC 222370772. Cf. Apponyi 2402, 2405.

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Considered lost: unique specimen of the rarest and most sought-after view of Mecca

Considered unobtainable: the large-scale engraving of the earliest view of Mecca, the press run of which was thought to have perished in a fire. The engraving was commissioned by the orientalist and diplomat Mouradgea d'Ohsson. Of Armenian extraction but born in Pera, on the European side of Istanbul, Mouradgea was fluent in Arabic and Turkish. He rose in the Swedish foreign service at the Ottoman Porte and was made minister plenipotentiary in 1782 before moving to Paris in 1784, where he was to publish his grand account of the Ottoman Empire. In the second volume of this magnum opus, "Tableau général de l'empire othoman" (1787-90; a posthumous third volume would follow in 1820), Mouradgea had included a double-page view of Mecca, drawn after his instructions by L. N. de Lespinasse and engraved by Berthault: a fine bird's-eye view of the Haram of Mekka and its environs during the Hajj. A year later, in 1791, he had a significantly larger version of the same view engraved by the brothers Charles-Nicolas and Joseph Varin, just before returning to the Swedish embassy in Turkey after the Revolution had made his position in Paris untenable. Although in Constantinople he is reported to have sold prints of the same to Muslim pilgrims and Christian travellers (cf. Hunglinger [1804], p. VI), today no copies of the Varin view can be traced in libraries, museums, or private collections: as the British Museum states in the description of a copy made 12 years later (supposedly after the "Tableau" view), "the entire press run" of this "earliest view of Mecca", produced by "Ignace Mouradja d'Ohsson in 1791", was "[ravaged by] the great Pera fire [...] in that same year" (item 1871,0513.28). The last person to report having owned a specimen was the Austrian orientalist Andreas Hunglinger, who in 1804 wrote that he had in vain sought to obtain one during his 1798 sojourn in Constantinople, but in 1802 had finally received a print from a Pera art dealer who suggested that Hunglinger have it copied. The copy, engraved in Vienna by Carl Ponheimer, appeared in 1803. In a separate brochure issued to accompany the print, Hunglinger claimed to have redrawn the view completely: "I lent the picture more proportion, more perfection and posture in light and shadows, added numbers to the principal monuments and provided their local names beneath the picture, all of which gives my copy notable advantages over the original" (p. VII-VIII). In fact, comparison shows that excepting the numbering and the key at the bottom (of which the smaller 1790 engraving also could boast), Hunglinger's changes were very minor indeed - no changes in the proportions or shading are evident, and even the size apparently remained very much the same: the British Museum exemplar of the Hunglinger print, acquired from George Ellis in 1871, measures 883 x 497 mm, while that sold by Sotheby's on 9 May 2012 (lot 155 - the only copy ever known to have been auctioned, commanding no less than £87,650!) measured 850 x 487 mm. - In promoting his own production, Hunglinger admitted that a similar view was still available in the second volume of Mouradgea's "Tableau", "but that is from a different perspective, smaller and treated with much more liberty, and not engraved by C. N. Varin (in spite of the fact that the author had availed himself of his services for several other fine things in the said work); also, it is a year older than the present one. In addition, I have seen many other [similar] engravings and even drawings in the possession of Turks and Armenians. The former assure me that these drawings are made by professional Turkish artists who sell them to pilgrims. These as well as all engravings I studied closely were entirely similar to this present plan, but none was so extensive in its scope, so large, so possibly perfect as this present one, which is why I considered it worthy of my direction and labour [to copy and publish it]" (p. IX-X). - Very faint waterstaining to margins; minor wear along creases with a few reinforcements on verso, but a splendid, richly detailed print with crisp contrast. A unique survival.

¶ Cf. Andreas Magnus Hunglinger: Mekka, die Mutter der Städte der mohammedanischen Religion (Vienna, 1804). Hunglinger's copy was displayed at the British Museum in the recent exhibition "Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam" (26 January to 15 April 2012) and was featured in the accompanying publication (p. 28f., fig. 5).

Offprint from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. About the Mahmal, the closed rectangular pyramidal canopy taken along on camelback on Egyptian and Syrian pilgrimages to Mecca before Ibn Saud's conquest of the Hejaz in 1925 - a "very curious custom in Islam", the origin and purport of which the present essay undertakes to investigate. "It is very improbable that the Mahmal [...] will be seen in the Hejaz again [...] The Mahmal is heretical to Islam, and the Wahhabis [...] have declined to admit the Mahmal into the Hejaz" (p. 117). - Wrapper shows insignificant ruststains from staples, otherwise in perfect condition.

¶ OCLC 47931240. Not in Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula.

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5 original glass lantern slides with the earliest photographs of Mecca and Medina

27

Sadiq Bey, Muhammad / Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje / Al-Sayyid 'Abd al-Ghaffar. [5 photographic lantern slides of Mecca and Medina... (silver gelatin glass positives), taken in the years 1880 to 1889]. Stuttgart, Lichtbilderverlag Theodor Benzinger, [ca. 1910]. Stuttgart, Lichtbilderverlag Theodor Benzinger, [ca. 1910]. 5 glass positive lantern slides (85 × 100 mm), each with a black paper mask, paper tape around the edges, a letterpress slip at the foot giving the publisher's name and city, and a slip at the head with the manuscript title. Stored in a contemporary purpose-made wooden box with brass fittings, with the word "Mekka" on the top of the hinged lid.

EUR 35,000.00

Five of the earliest and best photographs of Mecca and Medina, beautifully preserved as silver gelatin glass plates, including the first photograph of the Ka'ba in Mecca's Masjid al-Haram (Great Mosque). Two of the photographs were taken by the first person to photograph Mecca and Medina, the Egyptian Colonel Muhammad Sadiq Bey (1832-1902), who made them in 1880 for the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II. The others were taken by the first European to photograph Mecca, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and Al-Sayyid 'Abd al-Ghaffâr, who worked closely with him. Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936), one of the greatest pioneering Dutch Arabists, converted to Islam and lived in Mecca from January to about July 1885. The photographs by these three men are best known and most frequently reproduced from the published collotype facsimiles, while the rare surviving early albumen prints are usually faded or otherwise in bad condition. The present five plates, sold as lantern slides for magic lantern presentations, are therefore of the greatest importance as well-preserved high quality specimens of these famous photographs, providing the best early images of the mosques of Mecca and Medina. - All five slides are in very good condition, with only a bit of dust and the occasional smudge on the glass. They show: 1) The Masjid al-Haram in Mecca (the Great Mosque); 2) a closer view of the Ka'ba in Mecca; 3) the portrait of an unidentified Mu'ezzin in Mecca; 4) a portrait of an unidentified East Indian pilgrim; 5) the al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina (the Prophet's Mosque).

[Slave Trade]. Slave Trade. No. 1 (1888). Correspondence relative to... the Slave Trade: 1887. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. June 1888. [C.-5428]. London, printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, by Harrison and Sons, 1888. London, printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, by Harrison and Sons, 1888. Folio. X, 233, (1) pp. Top edge gilt. Sewn, with remains of former spine.

EUR 2,000.00

Rare British parliamentary papers and correspondence with local agents and officers on the slave trade, including British Navy operations off the coast of Oman and concerning the Hejaz, Jeddah, and the Red Sea, frequently in connection with returning Hajj pilgrims. Relevant correspondence is to be found under the headings "Africa (East Coast) and Arabia" (pp. 16-98); "Egypt" (pp. 107-139; includes much on the trade in the Red Sea region); & "Turkey" (pp. 178-231).

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Extremely rare: 20 original photographs of Mekka by the "earliest Arabian photographer"

One of the earliest photographic documents of Mecca and the Hajj, preceded only by the photographs of Muhammed Sadiq Bey published in 1881 (Sotheby's, 4 June 1998: £1,250,000). Much rarer than the author's similarly titled "Bilder-Atlas zu Mekka", a portfolio of lithographs to accompany the "Mekka" books which Snouck had published after his return from the Arabian Peninsula. "Following the publication of 'Bilder-Atlas zu Mekka', Hurgronje received a letter from his doctor in Makkah, whom he had taught the art of photography. The letter contained new photographs of the hajj which were of such great interest that he decided in 1889 to publish his 'Bilder aus Mekka' [...] The photographs provide an insight into the world of Makkah's inhabitants, pilgrims from all over the Islamic world, in addition to the sharif of Makkah, the Turkish governor, and various religious and secular figures" (Badr el-Hage, p. 46f.). "In 1981 F. H. S. Allen and C. Gavin first identified the earliest Arabian photographer by deciphering his elaborately calligraphed signatures, which without exception had been erased from the plates reproduced by Snouck Hurgronje: 'Futugrafiyat al-Sayyid 'Abd al-Ghaffar, tabib Makka' (The Photography of the Sayyid Abd al-Ghaffar, physican of Mecca). This princely eye surgeon had been host to the young Snouck in Mecca immediately after the Dutchman's conversion to Islam. Snouck claimed to have taught his host how to use a camera and attributes to him (without ever mentioning his name) the pictures reproduced in 'Bilder aus Mekka'". - The first four leaves of letterpress material have been reinforced along the left edge. Prints and their mounts in excellent condition, crisp with very slight toning. Cloth portfolio a little faded; spine repaired, with 1914 De Belder bookplate on pastedown. Very rare: only two copies at auctions internationally during the past decades (the last, at Sotheby's in 2006, was incomplete, lacking all the text leaves).

Remarkable set, rarely encountered complete with the plates volume. The Dutch orientalist Snouck spent a year in Mecca and Jeddah during 1884/85 and was married to a Mecca woman. He was the first non-Muslim to visit the city outside the annual pilgrimage. The photographs, taken by himself and an Arabic physician, are among the earliest to show Mecca and its pilgrims. - Professionally rebound in matching cloth volumes and portfolio. A fine and clean copy throughout: text volumes near-spotless. The backing paper of the plates show some foxing and are occasionally annotated in pencil, but the vintage photographs, much sought after as the earliest photographic documents of the city, its dignitaries and its pilgrims, are preserved in perfect condition.